title: Assessment of problematic internet use by the Compulsive Internet Use Scale and the Internet Addiction Test: a sample of problematic and pathological gamblers.
abstract: This study aims to analyze psychometric properties and validity of the Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS) and the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and, second, to determine a threshold for the CIUS which matches the IAT cut-off for detecting problematic Internet use. A total of 292 subjects with problematic or pathological gambling (237 men, 55 women) aged 14-63 years and with private Internet use for at least 1 h per working or weekend day were recruited via different recruitment channels. Results include that both scales were internally consistent (Cronbach's α=0.9) and had satisfactory convergent validity (r=0.75; 95% CI 0.70-0.80). The correlation with duration of private Internet use per week was significantly higher for the CIUS (r=0.54) compared to the IAT (r=0.40). Among all participants, 25.3% were classified as problematic Internet users based on the IAT with a cut-off≥40. The highest proportion of congruent classified cases results from a CIUS cut-off ≥18 (sensitivity 79.7%, specificity 79.4%). However, a higher cut-off (≥21) seems to be more appropriate for prevalence estimation of problematic Internet use.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Social Medicine and Prevention, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Guertler
authors.forename: Hans-Juergen
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Rumpf
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bischof
authors.forename: Nadin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kastirke
authors.forename: Kay Uwe
authors.initials: KU
authors.lastname: Petersen
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: John
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Meyer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D003192:Compulsive Behavior / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005715:Gambling / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055815:Young Adult